{"id":2174,"date":"2017-02-26T16:54:37","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T00:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2017-02-26T16:55:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T00:55:32","slug":"stephen-mack-jones-august-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/stephen-mack-jones-august-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Mack Jones: August Snow"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I started this book I have to admit I was a tad suspicious \u2013 the author is a poet and a playwright, not always the recipe for creating a down and dirty private eye novel. But as I read this novel set in Detroit\u2019s Mexicantown and featuring half African American, half Mexican ex-cop August Snow, I found instead that the book fitted neatly in with work by Loren Estleman and Steve Hamilton, being a refreshingly straightforward, if gritty, private eye novel and making no bones about it.<\/p>\n

Like David Housewright\u2019s Minnesota P.I. Mackenzie, who\u00a0has a ton of money at his disposal, so does August Snow, who won a settlement against the Detroit Police Department and is using the money in his own way to recreate the warm Mexicantown neighborhood he fondly remembers from his childhood. He\u2019s been on the run \u2013 more or less \u2013 for a year and is back home, settling into his life in Detroit, when he gets a call from an old client, one who helped cause much of the ruckus that got him on the outs with the Detroit cops. Reluctantly, he makes the trek across town to the woman\u2019s Grosse Pointe mansion to see what he can help her with.<\/p>\n

He turns down her request to look into possibly shady happenings at the wealth management firm and bank she owns, but when she\u2019s discovered dead shortly after they\u2019ve talked, August, being the true white knight private eye hero, thinks there\u2019s something wrong about her apparent suicide and can\u2019t get it out of his head.<\/p>\n

The back and forth of the street characters and hackers August deals with, contrasted with the ultra wealthy banker types, creates a good back and forth dynamic as the book unfolds. And even the name of this detective \u2013 August Snow \u2013 summer, winter, two opposites in the same name \u2013 helps define the way he\u2019s able to straddle the street, the FBI and police and his wealthy clients.<\/p>\n

I thought this book took a bit of time to get warmed up \u2013 as though Mack Jones was finding his footing and establishing his bonafides, but once he gets rolling, this is a wonderfully plotted P.I. novel, full of action and great characters. As readers we also meet the one of the few African American private eyes on the scene, so this is a welcome book and I hope the start of a series. There just aren\u2019t enough books like this one being written at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I started this book I have to admit I was a tad suspicious \u2013 the author is a poet and a playwright, not always the recipe for creating a down and dirty private eye novel. But as I read this novel set in Detroit\u2019s Mexicantown and featuring half African American, half Mexican ex-cop August … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,7],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-michigan","tag-p-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2176,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/2176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}